Gospel in a Pluralist Society: Reason, Revelation, and Experience (ch. 5)

Reason and revelation have come to be known as competitors, opposites, but Newbigin disagrees. They are intimately related if understood correctly. Two views can both be utterly opposed and still be “reasonable” because they have come from such different starting points. Newbigin seems to offer that God reveals to people (even if they think “I’ve discovered it!”) and reasoning moves forth from that point to make sense of our experience in the world. Those who do not see God’s revelation in science (or any discipline) will obviously have different patterns of reasoning – which is most of the world. The Christians’ response to this reality is to be firmly planted in both worlds (“God revealed” and “I’ve discovered”) and engage in personal dialogue within oneself and with others to make sense of the world we live in.